Mortified

I woke up to the haunting, mournful wail of loons calling in the distance and the sun beginning to peek through the window. The black and white waterfowl were ubiquitous in my hometown in, and their plaintive song would always remind me of home. I stood and stretched, and pulled my long, wavy brilliant blonde hair into a ponytail. My family history wends its way through the Baltic Peninsula, and as such, I am pale, blue eyed, and not known for my ability to tan. Tossing the knit cotton blanket and sheet aside, I stood from my bed and padded to the window. I live in a house built in the 1890s, and the windows are original, twelve pane affairs, three square panes wide by four tall; swirls and bubbles of glass are present in this window, distorting the view of the world outside. I changed from my tartan pajamas into jean shorts and a tank top over my blue and white striped bikini, and left my room. I live with my parents for the time being, this being my summer vacation from my sophomore year at Syracuse. I study engineering, and intend to one day engineer for a shipwright.

A bit about myself: my name is Claire. I'm a pretty typical college girl. I make decent grades and party every now and then. I'm not a prude, not a whore, I lie somewhere in between. In terms of looks, I'm pretty enough, in my opinion. I love my smile, straight, even, and perfectly white. I also love my eyes, a deep blue. I'm quick with a smile and am known in my sorority for my laughing fits that turn into hiccups. I am a hobby photographer and own a Canon DSLR camera that I cherish more than life itself.

My parents had gone to work already by the time I had awoken, my mother is the senior partner of the law firm of Lundquist and Starke, and my father is the captain of a three-mast schooner, which he uses for his day cruise business. He had been a Lieutenant Commander in the Coast Guard, but was able to draw his retirement when he had put in his twenty five years. Instead of venturing out in the roughest storms to rescue boaters and fishermen, he now only took his ship out when the waters were calm.

I quickly ate a bowl of granola and yogurt, and took a sandwich, a bottle of water, and a banana with me for my trip on my father's second boat, a small catboat with one sail mounted in the bow. Dad considered his two boats to be opposites; the schooner was his working vessel, which required a crew of five to operate the sails, which included my younger brother Corey and four of his friends. His catboat was his pleasure craft, a boat in which he could take my mom, brother and me out for a day of cruising. It was far easier to tack and navigate, and he could control the sails on his own with ease. On days he worked, he allowed Corey and me to use the boat, provided we let him know where we were going. Today, I had a trip to a local unnamed island planned, where I would spend my time bird watching and taking pictures. I quickly shot him a text stating that I was taking the boat and had thoroughly reviewed the weather report and tide charts.

Our house, a red brick Georgian affair, sat about twenty yards apart from the others on a stretch of rocky shore along the coast. Our house was my version of paradise; far enough away from everything that on clear nights you could hope to see the Northern Lights and countless stars, but close enough to a decently sized town that we didn't have to deal without the major comforts like city water (however disgusting it tasted in coastal Maine) and cable. A neighborhood marina housed our catboat, four houses down from me and across the street. Within moments, I was aboard and cast the mooring line away. The wind snapped the sail taut, and my worries evaporated as the shore became more distant astern.

I reefed the sail and drifted to a crawl as I tossed the anchor over the gunwale, stopping in about two feet of water. I slipped past the mast and gently lowered myself into the water, avoiding splashing water onto my camera. The water, by anyone else's standards, was quite cool; at about seventy degrees, though, it was near perfection for someone born and raised in Maine. From the island's shore, I could see the coastline of Bar Harbor about three miles distant. On this particular island, an abandoned house sat, virtually untouched, save for the birds and otters that lived here. The windows, unbroken by the storms of the past, had turned a dingy brown from unwashed grime. The front door had fallen from the rotted out frame, and lay on the warped, unfinished hardwood floor. Saplings began to creep in between the boards, giving the dwelling a morose, forlorn feel. Plaster had fallen off the walls, exposing the wood lath behind it, rotting away in places into wet, musty earth. Almost two centuries of dust and cobwebs had accumulated, and I could feel a sneezing fit coming. I decided against further exploring the house until I had some a dust mask and some long, sturdy pants. The last thing I wanted was to go through a floor wearing shorts that covered virtually none of my thighs.

I had been interested in this island since my father and uncle told us about it on a camping trip when I was about ten years old. As we sat around the roaring hardwood fire, Uncle Joe told us a creepy story of the widow of a whaling captain, who had built the house with his fortune. Each time the captain left, his wife would keep a weather eye on the horizon for her returning husband from the telescope she kept in the widow's walk on the roof. On his last, fateful trip, a Nor'easter claimed the lives of all aboard his ship. His wife was reluctant to give up hope, but after five years without seeing him, she became despondent. After tying sacks of rocks to herself, she took her catboat out and plunged herself into the waves, joining her deceased husband in the frigid waves of the Atlantic. I can remember my uncle puffing on his briar pipe, filling the clearing with the sweet aroma of Cavendish tobacco as he spoke of how on foggy nights, her ghost could be seen on the widow's walk, wailing for her deceased love.

I don't believe in the supernatural, but the story was too interesting to forget. I had made a promise to myself that one day I would venture to the island for myself. Rather than feeling creeped out by the dwelling, I felt peaceful today. This is the way nature works; all our triumphs and possessions will one day be reclaimed by nature. Our bodies will rot, our cars will rust and fall apart, our homes will decay, and the earth will claim us as her own. Such is nature.

I decided to head to the pebbly beach to attempt to tan. Being fair and blonde, my deepest tan is roughly equivalent to the winter paleness of my friend Amelia, a New York City native of Italian descent. Something is better than nothing, however. I tossed my towel onto a stretch of flat rock, weighed it down with a few stones, and strode to the water's edge. I shed my shorts and tank top a couple feet from the water, enjoying the feel of the warm sun across my back.

Amelia had told me of her days sunning herself in the nude on a remote stretch of beach in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. I had never tried it; I wasn't afraid of being caught or ashamed of my body by any means, but I never quite saw the point for someone as pale as myself. What's the point when my darkest shade still resembles a corpse? Despite my feelings of pointlessness, I decided to try it. Nobody would see me here, so there wasn't any chance of being arrested for indecent exposure. I was as isolated as one could be, and comfortable enough in my skin (pun not intended) to try it. I shrugged and gently pulled the end of the strings at the knot at my neck and across my back, as my breasts fell free. Next, I untied the strings which held the bikini bottom at my hips, pulling it free as well. I looked at myself in the reflection on the glass-smooth water, and liked what I saw. I was young, reasonably in shape, and attractive. My straw-blonde hair came down to the top of my belly button when I wore it in front of me, and fell in loose waves that some girls would kill to have.

I ran my hands over my expanse of nude skin, brushing out a speck of lint that trapped itself on my landing strip of short blonde pubic hair. Wading into the still water, I launched myself into the coolness. I had been swimming so many times, but never without a suit. It was sheer bliss. I mentally kicked myself for not doing this sooner. I lazily dove, enjoying the feel of the water's embrace. Blowing out the stale air, I surfaced, and floated lazily on my back. This was the life. If I could live like this every day, I'd seldom complain. I emerged from the cool water and tossed my sopping wet blond tresses behind me with a flick of my head. A slight breeze came from the east, and I gasped with the sudden chill. My nipples could cut glass, and my goosebumps could double as sandpaper.

I ran to my towel and quickly turned myself into a burrito, huddled on the pebbly shore behind a rock the size of a Crown Victoria to serve as a windbreak. I toweled myself dry, and spread the towel over the pebbles. I decided to let the towel dry, so I spread out over a patch of soft grass and lay back. I lay there, wearing only sunglasses, for about fifteen minutes before I turned over. I sunburn so quickly, I didn't want to take a risk. After another fifteen minutes on my stomach, I rolled back over and started putting on sunscreen. I have to roll hard with sunscreen; I usually wear SPF 70, at the very least SPF 50. I rubbed in sunscreen on my toned legs, starting at my ankles and going up, my thighs and hips next, then my abdomen and breasts, arms, leaving one part of me I hadn't covered: my pussy. I stood and lay down on a soft bed of moss in the shade of a pine tree, and rubbed the lotion in, going from my pubic mound in, before finally carefully rubbing it into my outer lips and clit. The sensation was amazing.

I had a healthy sex life, enjoying when my boyfriend treated me like a goddess. His cock inside me, his lips against my clit, no matter how he approached me, I was always lost in a wave of pleasure when we made love. When he wasn't around, I'd use my fingers or a toy, anything to get off. I don't call myself a slut, but I do love sex. As I rubbed, I felt myself getting turned on.

"Why not here? Why not now? Get off, rub that clit, finger yourself," my internal monologue persuaded. I didn't resist it. I flicked my clit lightly with the pads of my fingers, tweaking my nipples with the other. My mind wandered to my boyfriend, and how James never failed to bring me to an incredible orgasm, and how he looked naked, ready to take me. The thought of his impressive physique and his hard cock got me wet, about how we had the most intense sex, workouts in themselves. I spread my legs and fingered myself for all I was worth, flicking my clit with my thumb as I found my g-spot. Pleasure began to rock me as my orgasm came, making my legs shake before it subsided. It was never quite the same without him, but I was still satisfied. I lay back down, enjoying the sun's embrace across my skin.

I woke up with a snap. The shadow of the pine tree had grown by about twenty feet, my camera beside me. I rolled to my feet and looked over my shoulder. The sun had begun its descent, and it would be dark by the time I returned. It gets dark early in Maine. I raced to the beach to grab my clothes and get going. My clothes...where were they? I was sure I left them by the rock the size of a cop car. Where the fuck were they?!

I saw the waterline, eight feet nearer to me than it had been before. It came crashing down on me. I had no clothes. They'd been swept away with the tide. My towel, sandals, bikini, and shorts were all gone, taken to Davy Jones. "FUCK!" I screamed. I had to sail a boat back, dock it at the neighborhood marina, and make it into my house butt naked with nobody noticing. I was fucked.

There was nothing else for it but to go. I couldn't call my dad and explain. He'd be mortified, and for another, even if he was cool with it, there was no way he could bring in the schooner close enough to help me. I had to get out of this myself. I ran to the boat and thanked everything holy that the tide hadn't gone out. I'd have been stranded if that had happened, the boat beached on the rocky shore. To move it would have made it unseaworthy at that point, as the fiberglass hull wasn't quite built to be drug along granite and basalt. I'd have had to wait for the next swell tide.

But it was afloat, albeit in deeper water than when I'd dropped anchor. I ran into the low waves until the water was around my waist, and swam to the stern, keeping my camera high above water. I planted my palms against the step on the stern and pushed myself up, into the boat. After weighing the anchor, I raised the sails and turned the rudder full to starboard.

The return trip seemed to crawl. I tacked as best I could, getting the most out of the sails, but I still seemed to be moving agonizingly slowly. When sailing, one can still go into the wind, at angles. The fastest way to go is by zig-zagging. It's weird, but it works. I willed the sails to fill, but the winds never fully obliged me. A clatter at my feet made me jump. I looked down frantically and saw my cell phone that I'd miraculously left in the boat clatter to the smooth deck, and I dove for it. I missed the phone on my first dive, and gravity and inertia kept it moving, closer and closer to the stern, where there was nothing to catch it. I scrabbled over the deck, swiping at it, coming up short every time. With one final lunge, I dove, and caught the edge of my Android's rubber case between my finger and thumb. Had I not made the catch, I'd have lost the phone. Just as quickly, I scooted back until the phone was safely over the deck and not water.

The relief I felt was immense. I'd had to buy my own phone, and being on a college shoestring budget, I couldn't afford to replace it. I imagined that's what it would feel like to tip in the winning bucket of the NBA championships or stretch for the endzone for a game-winning Super Bowl performance. The elation of winning, combined with the thrill of being so close to failure, yet overcoming. Okay, maybe not. I wasn't about to pop champagne, and the bonuses players get for winning definitely wasn't happening for me. Just let me have my moment. I put it in the cupholder by the tiller, cursing my stupidity that I hadn't done so from the get go.

The town came into view as the sun began to make its final descent. Nothing is more beautiful, more impressive than a sunset in Maine, the fiery sky meeting the tops of the conifers. It was a marvel, every time I saw it, except tonight. I was burning daylight, and I needed to be back before my parents. I noted the wind change abruptly, from coming in from my breasts to directly to my left. The wind came in from the south, almost perpendicular to the boat. This was perfect, what's called a beam reach. This particular catboat was designed to go the fastest at the beam reach. I raised the centerboard to about two-thirds its height, and let the wind carry me. I noticeably picked up speed, and my heart began to race as I neared the shore. I pulled the tiller in a little to go to port, as I began to see landmarks leading me home. Around the next point, and about five hundred yards down, the marina would be there.

A lobster boat was coming in from the west, directly in front of me and a hundred yards to port. He was still a ways away. Panic gripped me. I had come so far, and now I was going to be spotted. "Breathe, Claire," I told myself. "Just breathe, baby, you'll be okay." I flipped my hair from across my back to in front of me. Thankfully, my blonde tresses were more than enough to cover my breasts, as my hair comes down to my waist. He would just think I was in a bikini...hopefully.

The lobster boat roared closer, her big Detroit diesels hammering away beneath the decks. She was an ugly boat, rusty and with seemingly a million colors of mismatched paint, peeling and fading. The windows, lit from inside the cabin, had a thick coating of brown grime from countless cigarettes burned inside. A blue-black exhaust cloud puffed out from her rusting exhaust stack. She passed, and the helmsman seemed much more interested in lighting his cigarette than looking my way. Slowly, I allowed myself to breathe again.

As I crossed the wake of the boat, the wind began to die down. "No, no, no! Come back!" I begged as the sails began to luff. I tacked again, massaging the little boat to gain any sort of headway. They filled slowly, but time was wasting. My phone buzzed in my hand. I had come back into cell reception, and the message that popped up had been sent fifteen minutes ago from mom.

"I'll be home in forty five minutes. I'm finishing up some stuff at the office. Venison for dinner?" the message read. I had thirty minutes to get home, since fifteen had already burned off. I gazed to the nearing horizon, and guessed I could make it. I began to plan my infiltration.

The coastline drew nearer and nearer, with the last embers of daylight dying. I wasn't worried about docking the boat in the dark, as I had done it before, but my time was short. I tapped the screen of my phone to bring up the clock. Thirty five minutes had passed since mom had sent her message. I could begin to pick out individual lights, identifying the flickering street light at the corner of our street and the main road. I was about four hundred yards out, I wagered. "You've still got time, baby, hold it together," I murmured to myself. The yards closed in, closer and closer to safety. Finally, the marina was within fifty yards.

Quickly, I scrambled over the deck, dropping over the side the sea bumpers, large inflatable rubber balloons to protect the hull from the dock. I trimmed the sail and aimed into our slip, brought the craft to a halt by snagging the mooring line and securing it around the cleat on the stern, followed quickly by the bow. My covert infiltration began now. I stowed my camera and phone in the diminutive cabin locker to keep them dry should I need to dive in the water and out of sight. It was now well and truly dark, the only light coming from converted gaslights that cast their amber glow over the asphalt and hedges that lined the street. The pools of light cast were small, as the lights were much more for the antique aesthetic and not optimized for light. Thank god for vanity.

I squatted on the deck and peered over the gunwales as I planned. Cameras sat on the near and far end of the pier. They sat still, and were probably grainy, but I did not want to be seen on them. A nude woman on camera is still a nude woman on camera, and there's only one person I want seeing my naked ass. I had no idea who reviewed the footage, or how often the storage was cleared to make room for new footage. The best way was to hop from the stern of my boat to the dock, then the stern of the next boat, on down until I made the end. I mentally thought back to how wide the slips were. I'd have about three or four feet of space between the slip and each boat, which would be easy enough for me to clear. I steeled myself for the hardest part of this. After I hopped up on the gunwale, leaped, and landed with hardly a sound. I leaped again, threw a leg over the gunwale, and clambered up before scurrying down and jumping again. Two more. I leaped again, this time on the low transom of a cabin cruiser, before continuing down.

And that is when it happened. My heart lurched and my stomach dropped as I heard the gnat-like whine of a camera kick on. Looking in horror, I saw a motion-activated camera mounted to the top of the doorjamb leading down into the cabin. Everything from my waist up was on full display to the camera. In that moment, I realized whose boat I was on; Mr. Starke, my mom's business partner, was fiercely protective of his boat. At this moment, he was getting a photo sent to his computer or phone of Claire Lundquist with her tits out. I covered my face in my hand and hurried onward, to the last boat. Thankfully, there were no cameras, lights, fog machines, or full-on marching bands on this one. I hopped to the last dock and then tore off down it, easily hopping a four-foot gate at the end underneath the camera, where I knew I'd not be seen. I had a street to cross, followed by turning down my alley for four houses, where my house was.